ACOG Says "Buyer Beware" Of Botanical Treatments For Menopausal Symptoms.(American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)

2001 JUL 26 - (NewsRx Network) -- In response to the ever-increasing number of women using herbal or other alternatives to conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has.issued a new Practice Bulletin, "Use of Botanicals for Management of Menopausal Symptoms."

AGOG says that while some botanicals may offer some symptom relief, there is no mandatory regulation of the majority of botanical products, resulting in a lack of standardization among products.

Consumers cannot be assured of any particular product's actual content and efficacy. More importantly, this lack of quality control may result in contamination, adulteration, or misidentification of plant products that may ultimately harm the consumer, ACOG points out. Many alternative therapies that are promoted and touted as substitutes for HRT, in fact, do not offer any substantiated health benefits.

Fewer than one in three menopausal women chooses traditional HRT, due to a lack of confidence in its benefits, fear of increased risk of breast cancer, and/or its side effects. Many women perceive natural" treatments as safe and effective despite the lack of adequate scientific studies proving either.

According to ACOG, the number and sophistication of most studies on alternative therapies, including botanicals, do not meet the current standards of evidence-based recommendations. ACOG also cautions that "natural" does not mean safe or effective and that potentially dangerous or lethal drug-herb 4 interactions can occur.

The new document provides recommendations to ob-gyns for advising their patients on the purported efficacy and potential adverse effects of some of these ...